Eternal Hunt is officially seven years old as of today — little would I have expected the blog to last so long when I started it back in 2012, as a way to chronicle my way back into the tabletop wargaming hobby. Since then, I have beeen fairly productive, if I do say so myself, and explored parts of the hobby I would never have considered beforehand. I’ve gotten in touch with lots of hobbyists all over the world and received lots of bitz drops and awesome models — let’s not forget that! In fact, a particularly awesome gift arrived just the other week, as you may remember, a bit early for the anniversary. Anyway, it has been quite a ride!

The blog currently stands at 414 posts, some 1.200,000 views, 450,000 visitors and 410 followers — all pretty cool numbers, considering the fact that this is merely little old me screaming into the void here 😉 In fact, after a somewhat slower year in 2017 (with just 25 posts), I would say 2018 saw a bit of a rebound, with 40 published posts, and arguably some of my finest hobby work (especially in the field of INQ28) to date. Joining different, forum-related painting events as well as Azazel’s community challenges on a fairly regular basis, as well as getting together with my friend Annie for joint painting sessions fairly often, has given me a fairly steady stream of new content to share with you all, and I fully intend to keep up the pace!

At the same time, as I’ve said before, it has become more and more difficult to keep people interested in this place, given the encroaching age of Instagram. I’ve already beaten that particular drum quite enough, however, and remain committed to keeping this blog alive, in spite of everything. At the same time, I have also discovered (or, in some cases, been pointed towards) some truly cool blogs in the very recent pasts, such as Larsonic Miniatures,J’ai un planning chargé, or Eastern Empire, to name just a few. And some of the new blogs I have been following were even started fairly recently — so maybe blogging is not quite dead after all?

In any case, let’s make a deal: I’ll keep posting here if you keep reading, liking and – most importantly – commenting. Sound fair? I think we should give it a go!

Now then, since absolutely nobody is interested in boring numbers, it has become a bit of a tradition here at Eternal Hunt to illustrate each year’s anniversary post with a look at something that is truly retro — and boy do I have some old skool goodness for you this year!

In order to discover just what the heck I am talking about, let us return to the beginning of the year for a bit and, ultimately, all the way back to my very first steps in this hobby: Back In January, I had a hard time getting my arse in gear once again and deciding on which model to paint next, when my gaze fell on this unlucky fellow:

The Dwarf from Advanced HeroQuest, horribly mangled from my earlier paintjob — this must have happened sometime during the early-to-mid 90s, but that’s still no excuse: That poor model was a stain upon my honour, so I decided to try and salvage him, just on a whim, and it spite of it not having anything to do with any of my current hobby projects.

Here’s what I ended up with:

Ahh, much better, wouldn’t you agree? In fact, the heroes from Advanced HeroQuest have aged pretty poorly, but I am still reasonably happy with the outcome. So happy, in fact, that I next eyed up this guy, the warrior, from the same game:

Seriously, what was I thinking? The tip of his sword had snapped off years ago, so I quickly replaced it with a newer Empire sword and decided to finally paint him up properly. And at the same time, there was this model:

The Wizard, this time from HeroQuest proper. As you can see, I really did a number on these poor models back in the day. And that’s not even mentioning the HeroQuest Barbarian, one of the first models I have ever attempted to paint. He was already repainted during a previous attempt at salvaging ancient models.

So after a bit more painting, I had managed to go from this…

…to this:

And by that point, a plan was already gestating in the back of my head: So I dug out my old copy of HeroQuest (only a few odds and ends remain from my original first edition box, received as a Christmas present, back when the game was originally released in 1989, but I was lucky enough to snap up an Advanced Quest – or “Master Edition”, in German – set when they were sold off cheaply at a local supermarket back in the mid-90s), and to my delight, most of it was still there, except for a couple of cardboard parts . So I set it all out and started to think about whether I could actually achieve one of my all-time hobby goals: to finally own a fully painted set of HeroQuest, the very game that got me into the hobby:

Illustration by Les Edwards

Because, like so many others, I was actually introduced to the entire wargaming/tabletop/roleplaying conglomerate of hobbies by way of HeroQuest. I remember playing the first games on the evening of December 24th, 1989 with my parents, and following that, many hours spent coming up with my own games, playing with or against friends and trawling fleamarkets and garage sales for all kinds of retro-GW games and miniatures back in the day — as long as it had HeroQuest-esque models, I bought it and entered it into my growing collection: HeroQuest, Advanced HeroQuest,Battle Masters and two of the “Dark World” board games (that were, weirdly enough, marketed as boardgame versions of longrunning German RPG series “Das Schwarze Auge” here in Germany) — it all grew into one huge pantheon of heroes and monsters for me, and I still have fond memories of that time. I also made my first attempts at painting models back then. And they were absolutely horrible, of course — you saw some of those abominations further up in the post 😉

Anyway, here I was, returning to the game at long last. And looking at the models I would need to paint, it did seem achievable:

Of course there would also be the furniture to take care of — and maybe the odd extra model here and there…

So I decided upon a plan: For this project, I would mostly stick to the models that were part of the original HeroQuest set, with a couple of additional monsters thrown in here and there for good measure. Once that was completed, I would add the Men-at-arms at a later date. This left me with a sizeable, but still manageable, amount of models to paint, which was crucial because I am a bit of a hobby butterfly and occasionally have the attention span of a chimpanzee that’s been set on fire — as evidenced by a prior, ultimately abandoned, previous attempt at painting a HeroQuest set.

As an added incentive, however, HeroQuest actually turns 30 this year, so that should give me an extra push to go through with it. And I have also discovered all kinds of places online that are dedicated to HeroQuest, Ye Olde Inn chief among them, and I was surprised how much HeroQuest seems like an entire sub-hobby unto itself. Anyway, down the rabbit hole we go…

My first port of call was to finish the four hero models, and those will be the main course for today. So take a look at them:

The Barbarian:

You are the Barbarian, the greatest warrior of them all. But beware of magic, for your sword is no defense against it!

The Wizard:

You are the Wizard. You have many spells that can aid you. However, in combat you are weak. So use your spells well, and avoid combat.

The Elf:

You are the Elf. A master of both magic and the sword. You must use both well if you are to triumph.

The Dwarf:

You are the Dwarf. You are a good warrior and can always disarm traps that you find. You may remove any visible trap in the same room or passage.

I already had fond feelings for those HeroQuest models before, but painting the four heroes has given me a whole new appreciation for them: I think they have really managed to age terrifically gracefully, given the fact that they are, when all is said and done, one-piece board game models from 30 years ago. Granted, they are nowhere near as detailed as modern GW miniatures. But their striking design and instantly recognisable silhouettes still work really well, and seem to draw out my will to really paint them well.

As for the actual paintjobs, I had a blast going for that classic, bright high-fantasy look. The paintjobs were mostly inspired by Les Edward’s art from the game’s cover artwork (and the character artwork from the different role cards).

Is this my Oldhammer moment, then? Possibly so. At the same time, and unlike a sizeable amount of the Oldhammer community, however, I fully retain my appreciation of modern day GW models (in fact, I should think the work on these bright, characterful HeroQuest hero models should probably be a rather helpful inspiration for my eventual – inevitable – treatment of the characters from Blackstone Fortress.

It’s just that this return to the distant past happens to feel like such a nice palate cleanser right now — and like a veritable breath of fresh air, if cou can believe it.

After another week or so without any hobby time to speak of, I was finally able to make some time for cutting up little plastic men last weekend, and all the kitbashes I have wanted to do for a while – and couldn’t – seemed to just keep bubbling to the surface, so to speak 😉 So for today, allow me to share what is currently on my desk:

I. Iron Man

Back in April, when I picked up the AdMech part of the Forgebane boxed set fairly cheaply — and mostly in an attempt to get my hands on the Armiger Warglaives (in order to, eventually, do stuff like this and this). This also had the side effect of giving me another set of Skitarii Rangers/Vanguard, and also another Tech-Priest Dominus. And after a while, I started to experiment with parts from the latter, in an attempt to make yet another high-ranking member of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Here’s what I came up with:

As you can see, the two main ideas here were to turn around the lower body (for a fairly different look, interestingly enough) and to swap in some Kataphron bitz. Both of these ideas weren’t exactly new, but at least it felt as though I might be on to something. The model still seemed a bit too unbalanced, however, and maybe too much like a ship plowing through the waves 😉

But last week I finally had the time to make some serious tweaks to the Tech-Priest and try to work out all of the various kinks. Take a look:

I tried to make him look a bit more grounded in his pose and composition. Plus I had wanted to use that alternate Magos Dominus head with the mitre for quite a while now — and I think it works really well with the more upright pose, compared to the standard Dominus. The top of the staff/axe has also been replaced, mostly to add yet another way to distinguish the new model from my older, mostly uncoverted Tech-Priest Dominus:

I really like how the models share at least half of their parts, yet still look fairly different 😉

In fact, I have made even more tweaks to the model, adding a piece of parchment and coming up with a slightly better setup for that secondary set of arms:

And I think the model is really starting to come together. Some people on the forums pointed out how they thought the new axe blade wasn’t a good fit, but I respectfully disagree with that notion: If anything, that blade always seemed like a poor match for a Space Marine weapon to me, because the blade has this slightly weird look. At the same time, it does seem more at home with the weird arcane tech of the Adeptus Mechanicus to me, plus that censer bit at the center fits the priestly nature of the AdMech pretty well, if you ask me — but this is totally a question of personal preference, of course.

II. Shark Attack

Where the rest of the killteam is Primaris-based (for that look somewhere between classic Mk. VII and the more hi-tech looking Mk. VIII [?!] Deatwatch armour), I wanted this guy to be wearing a suit of bulky, archaic armour, as a shout out to the chapter’s history of long isolation and drifting through the farthest reaches of known space with next to no contact with the rest of the Imperium, so I used parts from one of the plastic Tartaros Terminators, spliced together (rather cleverly, if I do say so myself) with Primaris parts. To give credit where credit is due, however, some of Doghouse’s seminal truescale conversion work was very much on my mind when building the model.

The original idea was to come up with an approximation of Mk. V armour, but I really ended up going for a more general pre-heresy look, to show how the armour might have been repaired and patched up with different parts over time. So touches from several different armour marks are now present, from the Mk. III backpack to the slightly Mk. V-ish legs, leading to a generally archaic look.

I also wanted to convey the feeling that this guy is very much used to wading into the fray of melee, swinging his weapons and making a huge mess as teeth and claws are shattering against his massive warplate. All in all, I am pretty happy with the kitbash so far, with one caveat: In spite of my best efforts, he’s a tad shorter than the Primaris-based models, something that I’ll hopefully be able to distract from with some deft basing 😉

In addition to the guy’s size, there are two small touches that I am not perfectly happy with yet: One, the left shoulder pad is only a placeholder until I manage to source yet another one of those spiffy “new” Deathwatch pads 😉 Two, everybody seems to be hating that shark jaw codpiece, so I might have to reconsider that element — it’s actually a bit frustrating, really: because it seems like the perfect part to add some chapter-specific decoration, yet the placement is very much the problem: My original plan was to use it on the Marine’s collar, but it seems that would overclutter the head area quite a bit. If anyone has a smart idea, I would love to hear it!

III. Going feral

And finally, another kitbash I have wanted to do for quite a while: A feral worlder based on the AoS Darkoath Chieftain:

It occured to me a while ago that we don’t get to see nearly enough feral worlders in Inquisitorial retinues (I was also heavily influenced by all the sweet “tech-barbarians” appearing in Horizon Zero Dawn, admittedly), and the chieftain just seemed like the perfect base model — there’s a fair bit of a Sláine vibe about the model, and that really made me want to work with it:

When it came to the actual conversion, the stock model was so detailed and delicate that I had to pay attention to carefully bring it into the 40k setting without going overboard, so I limited myself to adding a slightly futuristic touch here and there, via weapons, ammunition or wargear. As a nice side effect, this strategy also allowed me to exchange my least favourite part of the stock model as well – the slightly weird blade of the sword – and replace it with a nice, vicious chainsword courtesy of the CSM Raptors 😉

Seeing how tall this guy is, I think he would make a good follower for the – equally imposing – Inquisitrix Elianu, especially since she looks like she might have come from a warrior culture of some sort herself:

I think the various tokens and trophies scattered around the model also lend themselves well to a bit of a Daemonhunter vibe — I also chose the left hand gripping a severed Tzaangor head for the same reason, as it just seemed to hint at an affiliation with the Inquisitional Ordo dealing with the more daemonic servants of the ruinous powers. There’s also a tech-barbarian style character in John French’s latest book for the Horusian Wars series who was on my mind when I converted the model.

So yeah, that’s it for today. Any feedback you may have is welcome, as usual. And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

my original plan was to publish the first part of the annual Eternal Hunt Awards today, but I am not quite ready yet, and I really want to make this small series of posts the best it can possibly be every year, so you’ll have to bear with me for a bit here. In all honesty, I am entirely to blame for this situation, since I was just too darn lazy and spent the Christmas holiday catching up on a couple of videogames that I didn’t have time for earlier this year (on a mostly unrelated note, Batman: Arkham Knight is indeed every bit as good as I expected).

Anyway, this leaves me with – mostly – empty hands for today, for which I apologise. Please be patient for a little while, and I’ll be right back with part one of my 2015 recap — and to prove that I haven’t been lazy all the time, here’s a picture of some more 30k World Eaters I painted during the last couple of days:

In fact, here’s another small teaser picture showing you the models I have managed to finish this year — rest assured that we will be taking a closer look at my hobby ouput for 2015 in one of the next posts.

But, like I said, that will have to wait for a bit. Until then, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy new year! Wherever you may be in the world, give 2015 an appropriate sendoff and have a terrific 2016 — preferredly with many little plastic men in it 😉

So yeah, here’s to the new year! There’ll be more soon, so stay tuned!

A rather late post this week, for which I apologise, but I do have something new to show you! Let’s keep talking about the World Eaters for now, although we’ll be moving back towards the 40k time frame for a bit — you didn’t really think I’d forget my favourite guys in red and brass, just because I painted my first Heresy Era model, did you? 😉

A while ago, I showed you a conversion intended to represent Lheorvine Ukris, my favourite character from Aaron Dembski-Bowden’sThe Talon of Horus. The entire book is amazing, taking Abaddon into a very interesting direction and actually showing the former first Captain of the Sons of Horus and later Warmaster of Chaos as the capable and charismatic leader we have been told about so often in the fluff.

Anyway, Lheorvine Ukris is a World Eater (which explains my sympathy), but he is also one of the coolest characters in the book, believably combining a fair amount of comic relief with some deeper character traits, such as the inner conflict between his need for brotherhood and loyalty and the madness brought on by the Butcher’s Nails (an overarching theme also present in ADB’s World Eaters-centred novel Betrayer). There’s also a surprising and slightly tragic twist to his backstory — how is it that ABD’s Khornate characters are always so surprisingly compelling? The same was also true for Uzas in the Night Lords Omnibus, come to think of it…

So, anyway, here’s the conversion I made for Lheor:

The legs of a Dark Vengeance Chosen and a Forgeworld torso (both kindly provided by Commissar Molotov earlier this year) formed the base of the conversion. I wanted the model to look bulky and menacing, and the recipe seemed to do the trick. In addition to that, I used a head from the AoS Wrathmongers, some beastman arms and, of course, a CSM heavy bolter, as well as some bitz and bobs.

The model was inspired both by Lheor’s description in the story as well as this piece of artwork, included with the limited edition of the novel:

Some parts of the model are very close recreations of the art (the bare arms, the entire heavy bolter and some smaller details like the chain links dangling from the right pauldron), while with other areas, I aimed more for a general similarity in design and chose the bitz I liked best. The two areas where I actively departed from the artwork are the hands (my Lheor has the bare arms, but wears armoured gauntlets for a reason that will make sense to everyone who has read the book) and the breastplate (Lheorvine wears a loyalist’s winged skull motif both in the art and the book, yet I was too much in love with the archaic look of the Mk 3 breastplate Molotov sent me, plus the lightning emblem could also be seen as a callback to the plate’s loyalist origin).

When it came to painting the model, it was clear from the beginning that Lheorvine wouldn’t appear in my army as a canon character: By the time of the 41st millennium, he no longer wears the XII Legion colours, but has become a Black Legionnaire and member of the Ezhekarion. So I was free to treat the model as a “special guest star”, so to speak, which liberated me from having to adhere too closely to my usual recipe.

Which was really for the best, as my tried and true World Eaters recipe unfortunately relies one some OOP colours — which made Lheorvine the perfect guinea pig for experimenting with a new possible approach to painting World Eaters armour.

I am happy enough with the result, although there’s a certain looseness to the paintjob that wasn’t planned. That said, it suits the character rather nicely, I think. Anyway, without any further ado, here’s the model:

Lheorvine Ukris, “Firefist”XII Legion warrior, born of Nuvir’s Landing. Leader of the Fifteen Fangs warband, and commander of the warship Jaws of the White Hound

“When Lheor’s boarding party arrived, they entered without ceremony or order. A pack of warriors among soldiers, walking without formation. Helms crested with stylised crowns wrought in the War God’s symbol regarded the chamber. Their brass-edged battle plate was the colour of blood on iron, showing the resealed cracks of endless repair and mismatched scavenging.None of them made any pretense of sweeping the area with their bolters. Most didn’t even carry standard bolters; they held chainaxes in their hands, chained to their wrists, or carried massive rotor cannons slung over their shoulders (…)Their leader carried a heavy bolter with the practiced grace of one born to the burden. This, he tossed in the gravity-less air to one of his underlings, and gestured for his men to remain by the southward entrance.Before the war, he had been Centurion Lheorvine Ukris of the XII Legion’s 50th Heavy Support Company. I hadn’t known him then. Our association came in the years of dwelling within the Empire of the Eye.”

Aaron Dembski-Bowden, “The Talon of Horus”

So yeah, that’s my version of Lheorvine Ukris. You may have noticed that I swapped in a different right pauldron (kindly donated by Augustus b’Raass, by the way), as I really liked the even more archaic look. Oh, and I added a kill mark decal on the back of the heavy bolter, since there is a throwaway line in Abaddon:Chosen of Chaos, mentioning how Lheor has taken to scratching kill marks on his armour in later years, so I thought this might be a nice shout out to that habit 😉

Oh, and before I forget, Lheor is really rather massive, by the way! Here’s a comparison picture with my recent 30k Legionary:

In closing, I would be remiss not to mention that I am not the only one who has built a model for Lheor: Both Flint13 and InsanePsychopath have created wonderful versions of the character — in fact, their models really sparked my own project, in a way. Anyway, I guess this goes to show that Aaron Dembski-Bowden has really managed to touch a nerve with this character, right?

So here’s to Lheor, one of the coolest World Eaters ever. Such a shame he had to become one of Abaddon’s lackeys (just kidding) 😉

It goes without saying that I would love to hear any feedback you might have! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

It has been a while since I last posted a review focusing on a new GW release, and I intend to change that today. Considering current RL circumstances, I hope you’ll bear with me when I choose something fairly close to my heart to get back into the swing of things. So let’s talk about the new Khorne Bloodbound kits today:

Followers of the blood god really can’t complain: With every WFB or AoS chaos release, we have received a substantial addition to our toy box. I am quite aware that many non-Khornate chaos fans are rolling their eyes by now, seeing how Khorne seems to be getting all the love. And indeed, Khorne seems to be GW’s preferred fallback position whenever a new chaos release rolls around. For Age of Sigmar, this means that the Bloodbound have not only been elevated to a proper sub-faction, but they have also been the focus of the first wave of new chaos kits released for the revamped system. And while the Stormcast Eternals seem like GW’s attempt at radically re-envisioning the Empire by way of the Space Marines, the new Khorne kits hew far closer to the “traditional” chaos look. So, what do we get? Let’s take a look at each of the new kits in turn and also consider some of the possible conversion options. So sharpen your axe and step this way, please 😉

Skarbrand

Well, this was certainly a pleasant surprise, seeing how Skarbrand has been on hobbyists’ short list to finally receive a proper model for quite a while now. So here he is — can the model live up to all the expectations?

It’s quite obvious that the Skarbrand kit allows GW to get some more mileage out of those Bloodthirster designs they must have done prior to the release of the new plastic kit, as there is an overall similarity in design between Skarbrand and the stock Bloodthirsters (both share the spiky butt cheeks, for one 😉 ). On the other hand, the new model deviates from the prior kit in several ways: There’s the very different pose, of course, making Skarbrand look like he’s taking a moment to bellow in rage at the enemy. In fact, the pose is really rather excellent and one of my favourite parts about the model: While it does maintain some forward momentum, it really adds some presence to the character. And it also works rather beautifully with the twin axes wielded by Skarbrand.

The other very noticeable thing about the model, and one of the aspects that define the character, is the pair of tattered, torn wings. And I think GW’s designers have done a rather nice job on this particular part of the model:

Keeping most of the bones intact and limiting the damage to the wing membranes was a pretty good move, if you ask me: The design avoids the lopsided look you see on many Skarbrand conversions. Andwhile the wings still have a vestigial, damaged look to them, they do add some presence to the model. I also like the idea of having spiked chains between the bones: Is that some kind of additional torture, one has to wonder, or Skarbrand’s own attempt at making his damaged wings more presentable…?

The model also has some rather heavy scarring on the right side of the face. Let’s not get into the metaphysics of this too much (do daemons have bones in the first place? Aren’t they just warp energies given form…?), and rather focus on the actual design: While I like the broken horns, the flayed face may just be a bit much. Then again, I love how the ‘Eavy Metal team chose to paint the right eye as white and – possibly – blind:

And there’s the beard, of course. I’ll be honest with you: I am not a fan. But it should be easy enough to just leave it off or use it as a braid of hair on virtually any big model, so I’ll let it slide.

The twin axes are very nice and daemonic in design — the organic aspect really fits for a Greater Daemon, and I also like how they are far shorter and more hatchet-like than the axes the stock Bloodthirster gets. And while they are pretty ornate, they still seem workmanlike enough to work, from a visual standpoint. They also rather beautifully complement Skarbrand’s pose, as mentioned above.

And one more thing that differentiates Skarbrand from the stock Bloodthirster: a (mostly) custom set of armour plates, giving us yet another set of options for our Bloodthirsters’ wardrobes 😉

The armour looks great, too — I’ll even forgive that one skull playfully wedged into the eye socket of a skull ornament, there 😉 Anyway, the slightly more ornate look seems fitting for a daemon that used to be one of Khorne’s most exalted champions.

Seen on its own, the model is really cool and makes for a fitting centre piece for every Khornate army — the fact that it doubles as both an AoS and a 40k release is a nice bonus, of course.

Things really get interesting, however, when taking a closer look at the Skarbrand sprue: In additon to the actual parts needed to build Skarbrand, you also get a fair bit of stock Bloodthirster parts in the box:

For the record, you get the alternate pair of legs, two alternate heads and most of the weapons of the stock ‘Thirster. The undamaged wings, alternate armour pieces, third head and two-handed axe seem to be unaccounted for, though.

In any case, this should allow you to build either Skarbrand or your own, custom Bloodthirster, with additional parts from the stock kit multiplying the options even further, right? Well, yes and no: While you can make some changes to Skarbrand and use some of Skarbrand’s parts on your stock Bloodthirster, the kits are unfortunately not 100% compatible. Fellow hobbyist Khorga informs me that the running legs, for instance, are not really compatible with Skarbrand’s custom armour, while the amour plates from the stock kit, in turn, don’t fit together too well with Skarbrand’s standing legs. At the same time, depending on which pair of arms you use, the shape of the wing sockets on the model’s back will change accordingly, so not every set of arms will work with both sets of wings. While this shouldn’t present accomplished converters with any unsolvable problems, it would still have been nice to have all the parts compatible with one another — or even to have a kit that will make Skarbrand and all of the three stock ‘Thirster variants? Granted, that may have been to much wishlisting. But with today’s kits being so meticulously planned, it seems like having all the parts fit together wouldn’t have been that much more complicated for the designers.

Another piece of criticism frequently leveled at Skarbrand (as well as the stock Bloodthirsters, for that matter) is the models’ size: Quite a few hobbyists feel that these beasts should be quite a bit bigger. I am honestly not as bothered by the size issue, though: I think GW’s designers have managed to imbue both Skarbrand and his brethren with a sense of presence and brutality that makes them look as though they could go toe to toe with an Imperial Knight and still come out on top. If there is one size issue that bothers me, it’s that Skarbrand used to be the most powerful of Khorne’s Bloodthirsters, yet he’s about half the size of this guy…? Talk about a pint-sized powerhouse, right there! 😉

But that’s not really a major concern, and in spite of such minor quibbles, what we have here is a rather stunning model, and possibly the star of this release. Would I have enjoyed a huge multi-optional kit for Skarbrand and each of the ‘Thirster variants? You bet! But this is what we get, and it’s still pretty great, if you ask me.

Exalted Deathbringer

Whoa, that’s a pretty big guy, isn’t he? One of the new Khornate characters is quite interesting in how the model seems to blur the line between mortal and immortal servant of Khorne: He’s not quite a daemon yet, but also no longer purely mortal either. At the same time, the overall look of the model did remind me of a souped-up version of the priest from the warshrine kit.

Anyway, I like the model well enough, mostly for the excellent detail work adorning both the armour and the bare skin of the piece. I also really like that bestial face!

If I have one gripe, the weapons seem a tad too gimmicky for my taste: That axe is just a bit too cumbersome, maybe, and definitely an acquired taste, for one. And it really wouldn’t make any sense to have skull trophies dangling from there, would it…?

Beyond that, the only thing that really doesn’t sit well with me is that topknot — in fact, the quickest way to make the model look much cooler would be to either significantly shorten the topknot…

…or lose it altogether:

In fact, without a topknot, the model looks like an even more grimdark version of Darkness from the seminal fantasy flick Legend. I wonder if that was intentional…?

A look at the sprue reveals that the model is versatile enough to allow for at least some customisation:

Want to make your Deathbringer look less daemonic and more human? Just drop the stock head and swap in something more marauder-y. Need the claw or the axe for a different model? The world’s your oyster! And by the same token, it should also be possible to swap in an alternate set of weapons for use on the Deathbringer. The fairly open pose of the model should make converting it very easy.

All in all, I rather like this guy. He may not be super-original, but he does explore GW’s usual chaos look from a slightly new angle by blending mortal and daemonic characteristics. Plus the model’s versatility is really nice. Probably my favourite of the new Khornate plastic characters!

Slaughterpriest

Hmm, now this is an interesting case… Let’s not get into the fact that this guy doesn’t really all that much like a priest to begin with —
because you might argue that Khorne is not a deity to be worshipped at a temple or church, but rather through the act of war itself. What instantly struck me about the model is that it does look fairly different from what we are used to — in fact, it doesn’t even really look like a GW model, does it? My immediate reaction was that it seemed like a piece from a different manufacturer (Rackham comes to mind, or the designs you would see in Dark Age.

Sure, it does have enough Khorne symbols and skulls on it to convince us that it does indeed belong. But there are parts of it that really recall several other manufacturers: a certain lankiness when it comes to the model’s proportions, the design of the face…

In fact, I really rather like the face, to be honest. And the fact that the model doesn’t immediately read as standard GW fare doesn’t have to be a problem in and of itself, of course! I just cannot shake the feeling that this guy doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the family…

Beyond that, it’s certainly a cool looking model! Once again, the detailing is amazing all around:

There’s a dubious design decision or two, though: Why have those horns emerge from the model’s spine? Why have them at all, if you don’t want them on the head? Wouldn’t that be really impractical (and rather uncomfortable as well)?

Anyway, a closer look at the sprue shows that the model might be slightly less flexible when it comes to conversions, but much of that has to do with the specific pose and the two-handed weapon, of course:

All in all, I have to admit that I haven’t yet made up my mind regarding this guy: He does stick out a bit, yet there’s also something interesting about the model’s different style that I find rather intriguing. Hmm…

Skullgrinder

Ah, here we are, back in far safer territory. As a matter of fact, it’s actually rather surprising that it took GW as long as this to make the connection between Khorne and some blacksmith, forge god archetypes. But here we are at last: The Blood God’s very own sinister blacksmith. Huzzah! 🙂

Where the Slaughterpriest almost seemed like a non-GW model, the Skullgrinder looks oddly familiar. But then, it has so many hallmarks of GW’s Khornate design: the bunny eared helmet (with a lovely, somewhat perplexed, expression, if you asked me). The heavy armour. The dangling skulls and icons.

And of course, the weapon on a chain, something that seems to be becoming a defining characteristic of many Khornate models for AoS:

I certainly hope he’s not using that thing for any actual smithing, though — not only should it make for a rather uneven performance, but it also seems like it would wreak havoc on any matters of occupational safety… 😉

Yet once again, there’s something bothering me, although I cannot quite put my finger on it. Maybe the model just seems like a slightly formulaic treatment of the subject matter — like they mostly wanted to tick off a box here. “Murderous Blacksmith archetype? Yep, got that one. Moving on.”

Once again, the rather complicated pose means that you’ll have to plan ahead a bit when converting the Skullgrinder. At the same time, some of the bitz (the weapon and head, in particular) are interesting enough, so I think we should expect to see them on other models before long.

This guy is a Khornate model alright, but he also seems like the least interesting out of the three. Is it just me? Or would it indeed have been possible to do more with the blacksmith archetype — speaking of which: While not call this guy Warsmith or Wrathsmith or something that doesn’t involve the word “skull” for once? Oh well… 😉

Bloodreavers

Now these are the Marauders we have wanted for at least a couple of years, wouldn’t you agree? I think it’s consensus that the vintage plastic Marauder kit has adged pretty badly by now (although some of the bitz are still rather useful, make no mistake!), while the more recent kits like the Marauder Horsemen hinted at much more pleasing chaotic barbarians. And now we get the Bloodreavers, and I really have to say I like them a lot!

These guys are bullish and warlike and just seem very fittingly brutal and tribal for the job! They also look dangerous enough to hld their own against the more heavily armoured followers of chaos, visually.

Bloodreavers were one of the unit types that came in the Age of Sigmar boxed set, so it’s interesting to see inhowfar these multipart models move beyond the snapfit pieces from that box. And I think the Bloodreavers do a rather good job in this respect, staying true to the overall design while adding some interesting new touches, such as the two-handed weapons and the bigger amount of bare heads:

In fact, some of those heads are especially nice and flavourful (and would work brilliantly on World Eaters, if you ask me). At the same time, I also like the very stripped-down, brutal looking helmets.

At their best, these guys are just as menacing as you would want your mad, bloodthirsty barbarians to be. And without any of the Barbie doll anatomy (especially where the shoulders are concerned) that plagued the old Marauder kit. Some of the models are just brilliant:

The kit is not without its awkward parts, though. Some of the poses do seem a bit static and unnatural. Like the guy in the bottom left here:

Or that strange, double-sided dagger wielded by the champion. Whoever thought that looked cool?

All in all, however, I really like these guys! They manage to move beyond the starter box Bloodreavers, presenting some interesting new options and some pretty wicked sculpts. And you get twenty of them in the kit, so what’s not to like?

Blood Warriors

Here’s the other unit type featured in the AoS starter box, also rendered as a multipart plastic kit. And while I don’t want to get ahead of myself, I would argue that these models don’t fare quite as well as the Bloodreavers. Let’s take a closer look:

Okay, first things first: Like the models that came with the AoS starter books, the multipart Blood Warriors make for some heavily armoured, quite sinister and very Khornate infantry — so far so good! The detail work is, once again, excellent, with every armour beautifully detailed and adorned with suitably Khornate elements. The amount of different heads is truly staggering, with a pretty big collection of Khornate helmets, as well as some bare variants:

I especially like the bitz used to make up both the unit champion and standard bearer: The champ is such a characterful model, don’t you think?

I would never have expected to ever get fed up with axes — but I would have appreciated a sword or two in the kit, if only for some visual variety. Sure, all of the models have the option of equipping the new gorefists or a pair of axes, but a sword or two would have been nice. Speaking of which, the special weapons option here seems to be the, strangely Klingon-like, “Goreglaive” — which tries a bit too hard to be awesome for my taste…

That is a particularly lovely helmet, though!

The models generally try to approximate the design outline set down by the snapfit models from the starter kit, with the different helmet designs and optional bare arms the only visual elements to distinguish them. They do seem slightly less …sophisticated, for lack of a better word, than the starter box models, though. Granted, a pre-posed model will have a pretty good chance of looking more dramatic and impressive than a model built from a multipart kit, but it’s fairly noticeable here. There are also some strangely awkward elements about the kit: The aforementioned “Klingon axe”, some of the bare arms or the strange way the chains on the icon bearer’s standard interact with gravity…

In spite of these concerns, the kit remains very versatile and interesting — especially from a kitbasher’s perspective. This seems like the new, comprehensive toolkit for building heavily armoured Khorne dudes, and it should also provide you with many, many bitz to accessorise your World Eaters, Khorne berzerkers, Khornate Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Knights, regular WoC or what have you.

And still, while the kit is pretty cool, it somehow seems less interesting to me than the Bloodreavers — and it certainly brings fewer new elements to the table when compared with the Blood Warriors contained in the starter box. Still, I suppose this will turn into a more or less compulsory purchase for each Khorne player at some point.

Conversion ideas

So much for the different kits — but what about the conversion potential? I think it’s pretty obvious that these new kits will mostly come in handy for chaos players, particularly for those running any kind of Khornate army and/or warband. So what are my first ideas after taking a closer look at the new kits?

Skarbrand

The most othe obvious conversion use for the kit would be to make a more interesting, customised Bloodthirster — while keeping in mind the aforementioned difficulties when combining Skarbrand and stock Bloodthirster bitz. Even so, with a sharp knife, some GS and a slightly adventurous spirit, the two available Bloodthirster kits should provide converters with quite a few options to make a really unique greater daemon of Khorne.

Speaking of which: I think Skarbrand would also make a very nice base model for a conversion of Angron in his incarnation as a Daemon Primarch: The pose is really fitting for the character, and I think the more ornate armour should also work like a charm. In fact, I really don’t understand why we haven’t yet seen any Angron conversions based on the new Bloodthirster kits — maybe it’s time to change that…?!

Whichever option you choose, the kit will also provide some nice additional bitz for your Daemon Prince or Chaos Lord. Since you get quite a few of the stock Bloodthirster bitz as part of the deal, there’s nothing stopping you from, say, making your Daemon Prince look more Khornate. And some of the weapons might look good on a daemon engine or even on a Chaos Knight — in fact, most of the ideas I’ve outlined in my review of the stock Bloodthirster kit also apply to Skarbrand!

Exalted Deathbringer

I think the model would make for a rather nice alternate Herald of Khorne — especially in a 40k daemon army, where the danger of confusing the model for something else wouldn’t be as big. But the rather daemonic look of this guy, in addition to his bulk, would really make him look the part!

Or he could become a mutant overlord — either for your LatD force with a Khornate twist or for an INQ28 chaos warband. Speaking of the latter options, he would also make for a great chaotic high priest with a few touchups.

Or, basically the most straightforward option: Make the model a bit less daemonic and use it as a World Eaters arena champion — not unlike my own conversion for Vorl Dustwalker.

Slaughterpriest

I somehow get the feeling that this guy might end up as one of the chief suspects when it comes to converting a kit from the new release. I don’t even have all that many ideas about him yet, seeing how I yet need to make up my mind about him, but I think there will be quite a few conversions of the Slaughterpriest in the future, mark my words. Here, let me share my very first idea from just a second ago: What about thinking of that hideous spine painted in metal? That would give him a distinct “Mean Machine” vibe. Now just slap on a monstrous power claw, and you are already half way towards a very sinister looking pitslave champion. Just a though…

Bloodreavers

These guys should be very versatile conversion fodder. Just off the top of my head…

…they could be used as some very beefy and intimidating chaos cultists, obviously. Just slap on some autopistols, and you’re golden 😉

these would be brilliant as pitslaves! Just shave off the Khorne icons and add some heavy duty power tools and augmetics to them — done. They have the bulk. They have the scars. The rest shouldn’t be much work.

And while we are leaning towards the more loyalist (or at least, slightly less chaotic) side of things: Don’t you think these guys would make for some pretty convincing gland war veterans? I mean they certainly look like they have been beefed up via unsavory means. I mean, they could possibly be used to build any kind of barbarian IG troopers hailing from a feudal world, but I think they would be excellent as gland war veterans à la Inquisitor’sSergeant Stone.

With a bit of conversion work, especially where the legs are concerned, these could be used to build some excellent, bare-chested, gladiatorial World Eaters — in fact, had these guys been available at the time, they would probably have been the perfect base models for my own Gladiatorii.

And finally, the bitz from the kit would work wonderfully on both Pre and post-Heresy World Eaters: I think the faces really have the kind of personality you want on your blood-crazed madmen. Some of the brutal looking helmets might also be pretty cool on World Eaters officers. And a bare arm here and there would also make for a cool eyecatcher. If I ever get a box of these (and I will, eventually), expect to see the leftover bitz used in this way 😉

Blood Warriors

As I’ve said before, I think these guys will become one of the new go-to kits when it comes to building Khornate models.

They could be used as Khornate Chaos Space Marines and/or World Eaters with a bit of work (or barely any conversion work, depending on how adventurous you’re feeling). Face it, slaughter-brothers and -sisters: This is the closest we will ever come to a new plastic Khorne berzerker kit 😉

And basically all of the bitz will certainly be in high demand for (Khornate) chaos armies all over the place: Expect to see all the extra heads and weapons on AoS Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights, 40k Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Lords or Khorne Berzerkers.

So, what about this release on the whole? I have to say that I basically have two reactions to this release:

As a World Eaters fan (and a hobbyist still hopelessly in love with the Khornate design, even after all these years), I consider this a rock-solid release that provides lots and lots of new toys and several very interesting new toolkits. I now have more options than ever, and it won’t surprise you to hear that my hands are already itching when I look at some of those delicious bitz.

As a hobbyist in general, I cannot help but be a bit less impressed. Sure, all of this is high-quality work, but it also hardly treads any new ground. Which is why I can perfectly understand why some people are growing fed up with the seeming deluge of Khornate kits.

So, what to make of it all?

It seems very obvious that the Bloodbound are GW’s attempt at creating a faction that “plays it safe”, relatively speaking: These models could be used just as well in vintage WFB, and the design of the new kits is close enough to the older Khornate kits released over the last couple of years — and maye this was really a conscious decision, taken not so much from laziness, but rather from the attempt at providing something people are familiar with? Think about it: Yes the Stormcast Eternals are very similar to Space Marines in some respect, but they are also a fairly radical change of direction for GW’s fantasy setting. Maybe they did want to be the other faction included in the starter (and expanded upon in the following release) to be closer to something fans of vintage WFB could relate to?

In any case, if you are a fan of Khorne, you’re in luck: You have so many new toys now, and most of them are pretty cool. Some are even rather awesome! If, however, you find Khorne uninteresting and boring, these kits will do little to change your mind.

What’s your take on the Khorne Bloodbound? Do you love ’em or hate ’em? Is there anything you would like to share, or a conversion idea I didn’t think of? I’d be happy to hear from you in the comments section!

Hey everyone, even though I am crazy busy this week, I just wanted to let you know that last week, my dear blog, Eternal Hunt, finally reached 300,000 views last week. While that number may still not qualify as all that impressive, I am still rather proud of this achievement — who would have expected that amount of traffic back when I started this blog with a measly post back in 2012? Certainly not me!

I mean, seriously, 300,000 views: Even after subtracting all the times I’ve hit F5 myself, that’s still quite a lot. And it’s not only the number that I am proud of, but also the amount of great hobby moments that are inextricably linked with this blog!

So to all those who keep reading this stuff, who comment, who follow this blog, who keep sending me bitz and suffer my atrociously punny post titles: Thank you so much! You rock!

And I’m not even the only one who’s happy: Here’s what the members of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt did to celebrate when I told them the news:

Happy hunting, guys! You’ve earned it! Looks like a orbital bombardment may be in order…

So, like I said, I am really busy at the moment, and I regret not having time for a beefier update — but don’t fret, more substantial content is on the way: I am currently preparing a thorough writeup about the ins and outs of the End Times Nurgle release that will go up next week, at the latest. And it goes without saying that I have been tirelessly cutting up little plastic men, so expect some news on that front as well.

Until then, though, thank you so much for frequenting my little corner of the interwebz! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Ever since I’ve managed to complete my World Eaters Lord on juggernaut, I have been in the clutches of a veritable, INQ28 related kitbashing spree, building model after model — let’s just hope I’ll manage to get some of these painted at some point! 😉

Anyway, over the next couple of posts, I would like to show you the models I have come up with during this pleasant burst of inspiration. As usual, many of these have been hammered into completion through the very helpful feedback of fellow hobbyists on the forums I frequent, so a heartfelt thank you to anyone who helped me sorting out the smaller kinks on these pieces.

Anyway, for today, let’s forego the shadowy side of the Inquisitor universe in favour of some more ostentatious servants of the Emperor:

I. A pair of colleagues

One thing I did was to touch up a pair of Inquisitors that I had already built a rather long time ago. Upon closer inspection, it seems I have never shared them here on the blog, so that alone should be enough reason to talk about them 😉 So let’s take a closer look:

The first of the two was built to be instantly recognisable as a psyker: By choosing bitz of psionic equipment like a warding staff and psychic hood and by trying to look him tall and gaunt, I believe succeeded at communicating that idea. Take a look:

As you can see, the kitbash itself is fairly straightforward, with an upper body mostly made from GK plastic parts combined with the robed legs of the WFB Chaos Sorcerer. But while I had originally used GK shoulder pads on this guy, PDH rightly pointed out that those made him look a tad too much like an Astartes, so I replaced them with some Chaos Marauder shoulder pads for a less “Marine-y” look. This also had the coincidental side effect of making the model look quite a bit like a piece of artwork in the Inquisitor rulebook, but this wasn’t planned.

In order to further obscure the GK origins, I improvised a nonstandard “power plant” for the model’s back, combining the lower half of a GK backpack with some tanks from a Vraksian Renegade Militia soldier:

The other Inquisitor was designed to be pretty much the polar opposite of the psyker: I wanted a bulky, ostentatious, very physical type, inspired by characters like Witch Hunter Tyrus or Inquisitor Coteaz:

Again, a couple of Marine and GK bitz are very much at the centre of this conversion. So I tried once more to prevent the model from looking too much like an Astartes by combining the Marine bitz with stuff from different sources: The legs came from the WFB chaos warriors, and I added a couple of additional armour plates (the shoulder pad based on a radar array was inspired by a similar conversion in the old Codex Witch Hunters, by the way). And I added a half cape over the model’s shoulder, making use of possibly the last part I had left over from the Chaos Lord on Manticore rider bitz 😉

All in all, this guy is a real beefcake, but back then, it was a lot of fun to build an Inquisitor who wasn’t a gaunt, shadowy figure for once.

While I have not yet decided which Ordo these two will belong to (I suppose it’ll be a neck and neck between Malleus and Hereticus), I definitely think they have some chemistry together: There’s certainly a bit of a “brains and brawn” thing going on, don’t you think?

Maybe, these two work together as a team, hunting down rogue Inquisitors and Heretics. It might also be interesting to have them be far more divided than is apparent at first glance: Maybe the bombastic, monodominant Witch Hunter secretly detests his colleague for his reliance on the powers of the warp? Maybe the Psyker has discovered he has a taste for the more radical rituals and pratices? Maybe they are the estranged former pupils of a common master, now brought back into an uneasy alliance by circumstances beyond their control? In any case, there could be some delicious friction between the two…

II. A Sister of Battle

The next model I want to show you today came together surprisingly quickly and was a ton of fun to convert. But I am getting ahead of myself! Let me start by telling you that I have a huge soft spot for the Adepta Sororitas and think it’s a crying shame that GW have shown them so little attention over the last years. For me, the Sisters of Battle are one of the most eclectic and quirky elements of 40k, and one of the things that really sells the setting as something different and interesting. The Sisters are iconic and recognisable and – rather surprisingly, both for GW and wargaming in general – not a highly sexualised depiction of female characters (let’s just forget the Sisters Repentia for now, because they clearly aren’t all that sexy, unless you are that way inclined…). Maybe that’s why the Sisters aren’t selling enough models to warrant a substantial new release?

Anyway, long story short, I have wanted to build a Sister of Battle for my INQ28 collection for quite a while now, and after having converted a small squad of Sisters of Silence for my Custodes, I was reasonably confident that it could be done, and could be done in plastic, no less. So a short time ago, I picked up a leftover Dark Eldar Kabalite Warrior and a couple of bitz and built this model:

I am really happy with the model, to tell you the truth, even though I clearly recognise that it’s not without its faults: For the head, I had to fall back on the one plastic Sororita head available (from the Sisters of Battle vehicle conversion kit, I believe), resulting in a head that might be ever so slightly too big for the body. The backpack may be a bit too bulky as well, although I am actually rather proud of the actual build for that part.

All in all, even though it may be a slightly flawed model, I am enormously fond of it, if only because it was entirely built from plastic parts, without any actual sculpting involved. And I hope that a classic Sisters of Battle paintjob will go the rest of the way towards selling the model.

III. An Angel of Death

And, last but definitely not least, let me show you my latest conversion (and a model I am immensely proud of):

I imagine most of you will have heard about a certain trend of “truescaling” or “art scaling” Space Marines. Not to delve too deeply into this discussion, but the main argument behind this movement is that the scale of the actual Space Marine models doesn’t fit the depiction of Marines in the art and written background published by GW: While the Marines in the art and fluff come across as veritable titans, much taller and wider than any mere man, an actual Marine on the table will often literally see eye to eye with any Cadian or Chaos Cultist.

So quite a few hobbyists are going the “true scale” route, converting and/or resculpting their Marines to be closer to the depictions in the background. And while I am perfectly happy with the scale of Marine models in my regular 40k army (for practicality reasons, if for nothing else), the wonderful world of Inquisitor provided the perfect excuse for building at least one true scale Astartes.

You see, one of the things the original 54mm Inquisitor models truly excelled at was to communicate the fact that people come in all shapes and sizes: While most infantry models for 40k will usually be scaled to equal size, the 54mm Inquisitor models represented a wide range of heights and builds — and Brother Artemis, the Space Marine model released for Inquisitor, was definitely the tallest and most imposing guy in the catalogue.

And with the focus on making individual models look as good as possible in INQ28, I think we should also try to incorporate that variety in heigth and build into the smaller scale, even though it means more work. And while there’s admittedly not that much use for a Space Marine in INQ28, I still wanted to build one, both due to the challenge involved and because such a character would fit into the background for my little slice of the galaxy.

Now actually building the model turned out to be a veritable odyssey: Everything started when I saw Commissar Molotov’s Deathwatch Marine many moons ago:

Deathwatch Marine converted by Commissar Molotov and painted by ElDiablo

Molotov himself may no longer be all that fond of this model, but ut really served as a trailblazer for me in that it convinced me that building and painting a truescale Marine would be a very worth hobby endeavour! And indeed, I started kitbashing right away (back in 2011), coming up with this:

But while it may have been a valiant first effort, the model didn’t convince me, even back then: The proportions were a bit off, the legs were clearly Terminator legs, and I feared I would have to get my feet wet using GS to sort out the build of the model. So this first test model was scrapped, and I put the project on the back burner, there to simmer for a while…

And simmer it did: Whenever I saw my fellow hobbyists come up with amazing truescale Marines of their own, their work would prove to be both inspiring and intimidating to me: Inspiring because it gave me the motivation to take another shot at my own model, intimidating because all those models always seemed so much cooler than what I could come up with.

There are many, many cool truescale projects out there, so naming favourites seems a bit unfair, but let me at least mention the models that proved the most inspiring (and/or intimidating) to me: Jeff Vader came up with a wonderful series of truescale Marines, but I couldn’t get his recipe to work for me, much as I tried. The Strike Force Helmawr project proved tantalising, showing not one but many, many true scale models (and convincing me I could never pull it off). Bruticus’s amazing Sun Titan Space Marine made me salivate at the mouth and gnash my teeth at the same time, because the model and backstory were fairly close to what I had been planning for my own model (on a related note, the model is made even better by the wonderfully grimdark background provided here and here). And there was always migsula with his outstanding Alpha Legionaries, of course, but I knew right away that I myself could not hope to aspire to something as lofty as that 😉

Meanwhile, I made another attempt at building my own truescale Marine:

But while the model did feel like an improvement over the first version, the look I wanted still wasn’t there. Would I be forever unable to come up with a suitable Astartes for my INQ28 collection?

What finally pushed me over the edge to try it yet again were Jeff Vader’sDeathwatch Marine (using a GK Terminator torso instead of that of a regular Marine, something I hadn’t even considered before) and Ukos’sreally nice and clean truescale model (also using plastic Terminator parts). So, last weekend, I gave it yet another try, and this time I persevered:

In hindsight, it’s truly baffling how quickly the model’s body came together after all that prior deliberation. The main challenge was to get the proportions to look plausible enough, but I think I have finally managed to make it work! As for the parts used, the legs came from a FW Tartaros Terminator (I’d probably always recommend these over regular Terminator legs, because their design means that they won’t need any additional greenstuffing to look accurate), while the torso and arms are from the Grey Knight piloting the Nemesis Dreadknight. I also added shoulder pads from the Sternguard kit and a particularly arrogant looking head from the Vanguard kit. Oh, and the cap of a felt pen provided the plasticard collar I needed to make the armour work — another good piece of advice for lazy people like me 😉

After the main build had been sorted out, it came to making the armour look less utilitarian and more ostentatious and baroque. I quickly found out that I couldn’t add nearly as much bitz and bobs as I would have liked, and I really had to reign myself in so as not too overclutter the model’s silhouette! Anyway, here’s the model with added gear and decoration:

In addition to providing a bit of extra bling, some pouches and grenades were used to bulk out the hips and help create the illusion of “correct” proportions.

The final step was to add weapons to the model, and I clearly knew I wanted this guy to be wielding a sword and a pistol of some sort. And while I had several options for either, in the end it turned out that many of the possible weapons weren’t useable because they would have looked like mere toys in the hands of this huge model — a very real complication with truescale models!

In the end I settled on a FW plasma pistol and a Grey Knight power sword. And with that, the conversion was completed. I give you Brother Sergeant Janus Auriga, of the Golden Legion Astartes Chapter:

And, of course, no post about a true scale Marine would be complete with a scale comparison shot showing the model next to one of its “regular” counterparts. Take a look:

Quite a beast, don’t you think? 🙂

I won’t lied to you: I am super happy with the finished model, especially since it has taken me such a long time to come up with a true scale Astartes of my own! Since I don’t plan on building any more TS Marines, I knew that I should give it my all on this guy — and I did 😉

So yeah, those are the first results of my recent INQ28 kitbashing spree. As usual, I would love to hear any feedback, suggestions or criticism you might have! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

A quote:

You fools! Your gods have blinded you with visions of glory and power, of a golden future that awaits you in their service. But our lord has shown us more than you could ever imagine. There are no empires awaiting you. In the endless cold between the stars, there is only the hunter and his prey. And those who were once the former and are now the latter. All that remains is the hunt, for only the hunt is eternal.